Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and the Gender Politics of Knowledge in Colonial Mexico by Stephanie Kirk (review)

More than three hundred years after her death, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz— the inscrutable woman, author, and nun—continues to spark both literary and biographical interest among critics, as Stephanie Kirk's most recent book attests. In five interconnected chapters that represent the multiple underpinnings of Juana's political world (e.g., libraries, erudition, education, publishing, literacy, theology, spirituality, science, etc.), Kirk meticulously recounts, examines, and analyzes Sor Juana's life and writings within the contours of societal "hegemonic masculinity" (3) in order to reconsider, if not challenge, those well-established themes and theories surrounding her and her body of work. In this way, Kirk offers a more nuanced, less dichotomous understanding of Sor Juana's condition within the patriarchal framework by which she was bound yet often managed to bend, as evinced when Sor Juana cleverly writes herself into (male) discourses to not only engage with but ultimately gain mastery over them. Revisiting what others before her (Paz, Merrim, Franco, Soriano Vallès, etc.) have postulated, Kirk then presents her own compelling claims within the larger context of the "gender politics of knowledge" as she convincingly reconceives Sor Juana from an intersectionality perspective (e.g., gender, race, class, ethnicity). While Kirk's rendering will astound even the most seasoned critic already familiar with the obstacles Sor Juana faced, it nonetheless begs the question: what (else) would Sor Juana have achieved had she not been born a woman? The speculation involved is perhaps what makes Sor Juana one of the most intriguing and indelible literary figures of the Hispanic world.

"Dangerous Books and Vagabond Readers" explores the subject of bibliophilia, from the importance of books and libraries in general in the Spanish colonies (i.e., for missionary purposes) to their status as specific, symbolic lifelines for Sor Juana. Because of her position as a nun and condition as a woman during Inquisitional times, Sor Juana was under constant surveillance as a consumer of knowledge, with a library that fed her intellectual hunger figuring as a contested space (16) rife with tensions from within and outside of the convent walls. Kirk's phrase "trespassing on the exclusive masculine territory of knowledge" (25) underlines Sor Juana's intellectual transgressions and encapsulates the threat she posed to herself and those around her. In contrast, her male counterparts (i.e., Juan de Palafox y Mendoza) were encouraged to cultivate a public intellectual life, best exemplified through the Palafoxiana library, which not only survived but today is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site (while, in comparison, Sor Juana's private collection was questioned and usurped, eventually leading to its disintegration). Given Sor Juana's self-proclaimed dependency on her books, not to mention a lawsuit filed by her estate and the fact that by 1695 she had already restocked nearly two-hundred titles, her purported renouncement of her cherished library toward the end of her life smacks of incongruity, which leads Kirk to conclude that Sor Juana's decision was not as voluntary as previously thought.

"Latinate Culture and Classical Erudition" focuses on the Jesuits in Mexico, whom Kirk describes as the "providers and disseminators of knowledge" (62) and therefore the obvious religious model (devoutness in conjunction with intellectual pursuits) for Sor Juana. Further, the study and command of Latin, according to Kirk, in addition to being a sign of status, success and education level in the New World was also a sort of symbolic initiation that reinforced the "homosociality of early modern male knowledge" (69). While women did learn basic, domestically-oriented, "passive" Latin, Sor Juana's "active" proficiency—which included being able to use the language in written form— far exceeded that of her female peers, probably much to Núñez de Miranda's chagrin. Sor Juana's writing, particularly her poetry, politically benefitted from and was enriched by her knowledge of Latin, as...